20 Essex Street welcomes back retiring CoA judge Rix LJ

Court of Appeal (CoA) judge Lord Justice Rix has retired from the judiciary and is set to join 20 Essex Street as an arbitrator in May.

Rix LJ, who is some six years short of mandatory retirement, is one of the most senior judges in the CoA. He was appointed to the Queen’s Bench division of the High Court in 1993 and elevated to the appeal court in 2000.

By joining 20 Essex Street Rix is returning to his roots, having been a tenant at the set before becoming a judge.

As a CoA member Rix has ruled on a number of significant cases, including recently upholding Mr Justice Teare’s refusal to recuse himself from hearing the $6bn claim brought against the former chairman of Kazakhstan’s JSC BTA Bank, Muktar Ablyazov, by the bank (11 December 2012) and, earlier this month, giving the leading judgment in a dispute between Brazilian energy giant Petrobras and rival Petromec.

At 20 Essex Street Rix LJ will join a group of retired CoA judges who now work as arbitrators, including Simon Tuckey, Philip Otton and Brian Neill.

Could this have anything to do with the fact that he was not among the recent appointments to the Supreme Court and that, barring death or retirement for medical reasons, there are no more appointments to the Supreme Court due for several years? An outstanding contributor to the work of the Court of Appeal over the past ten years or so who has been very unlucky not to go to the House of Lords or the Supreme Court. Will mint it as an arbitrator over the next ten years!

Sir Bernard Rix had the courage to accede to my submissions in Kaur v ILEX on the law of bias. His judgment is an impeccable analysis of the law of bias and he led the way in overturning the rather narrow-minded and literal analysis of the High Court. He has retired too early. A Court of Appeal without Sedley or Rix is impoverished.

Had the privilege of training alongside Bernard on a recent course. Of course, I was aware of his background – but he couldn’t have been more humble, and had a fantastic lightness of touch. Humane and even handed. Massive loss to the judiciary.